Vintage Guitar Zone

A VINTAGE guitar show struck the right chord with hundreds of music lovers at Rheged over the Bank Holiday weekend.

Queues stretched out of the doors of the grass-covered building with people waiting to enter the annual Cumbria Vintage and New Guitar Show.

And after a successful first day on Sunday, the event’s organiser Malcolm White said he anticipated around 1,500 music fans from across the north to crowd into the event.

Mr White said: “I has gone brilliantly, people were queuing up from about 9.30 waiting to come in. A lot of people who come regularly, every year, have said it is excellent, another good show.

“People have been turning up and there’s a lot of playing going on – the weather has been fine but people have still been coming in.

“We have had a lot of youngsters come in too this year, as we have seen a few families.”

He added that many people had brought their own guitars to sell at the show.

Much of the trading at the two-day Bank Holiday show happens on the Monday, as specialists flock to the show to look at the wares on offer.

Last year’s show saw around 1,300 visitors come to Penrith to look at hand-made and custom guitars, and hear musicians perform.

But this year the event was expected to top that figure.

Among the attractions were performances by jazz guitarists Rod Sinclair and James Birkett, and rare and custom-made guitars.

A competition was run to win a guitar weekend, with performers playing numerous different types of music at the event.

This festival is now in its 12th year.

As always, you can bid on your very own vintage guitar at VintageGuitarZone.com! Bidding is free, and you can bid as low as you want!

Forget air guitar, one tech start-up is aiming straight for the classic vintage guitar market online.

From the first few notes of “Wheels,” Lloyd and Roger Williamson’s fine new guitar CD is like a ticket home.

The father and son duo play guitars — and sometimes steel guitar — together on classics mostly from the 1960s and earlier, including “Sam’s Place” from Don Rich and Buck Owens, “Blue Spanish Eyes/Yellow Bird”, “Diggy Diggy Low” and “Cold Cold Heart.”

It’s a warmly familiar, embracing sound throughout. It’s also pretty unusual these days.

Nobody picks like this anymore.

Despite generational differences in their playing, with Roger a little bluesier and jazzier and Lloyd with a hint more twang, for both Williamsons, the melody matters.

And that makes Play’n Guitars a welcome new/old collection, especially given how infrequently these two exceptional, versatile musicians get to cut loose together, and how under recorded they are.

Partly because they freelance more often with others than they play together, and partly to recreate the old dance guitar sounds no one hears anymore, the Williamsons cut the 10 tracks at Roger’s home in Paisley at a relaxed pace over last winter.

The result is for anyone who’s ever heard Lloyd play a Saturday night dance as he has regularly for the last 50 years — and more recently Roger. Both have played with a long list of bands or singers throughout the region.

Play’n Guitars is a project they’ve talked about for years. Lloyd and Roger played all the acoustic and electric guitars, relying on a collection of new and vintage Fender electrics, along with Gretsch and Epiphone instruments and a Martin D-28 acoustic. Roger added bass and pedal steel to some tracks, with drums by Buck McWaters and sax from Steve Kennedy.

The roots of the recording go back to regular Sunday afternoon music making at Lloyd’s parents’ home near Wiarton when Roger was a boy.

In a recent interview at his home in Paisley, he said those family music sessions were his first inspiration to eventually pick up a guitar as a youth, as did his brother Paul. Both were encouraged also by their mother Mabel Williamson, a Hepworth-area music educator who plays and teaches bass, piano and harp.

Best known locally with the band Detour and through shows along with Lloyd supporting Beckett Family fiddle shows, Roger now makes a career of music, “playing it and teaching it” over the last 10 years or more. His three children all play as well.

“I remember Sundays as a boy going to Grandma Williamson’s before I was old enough to play,” Roger said. “Dad and uncle Ross would play music on the guitars, and grandpa, in the living room. And this would just go on constantly all Sunday afternoon until it was supper time. I was kind of hoping to recreate some of that, some of those memories.”

Both Lloyd and Roger learned their first music to back up Garney Williamson’s fiddle music, and have dedicated the new CD to his memory.

Plans are in the works for a CD launch party in October. It’s available now at both Owen Sound music stores and more information about Roger and Lloyd Williamson is available through the Sun Times Our Sound music gallery at http://www.owensoundsuntimes. co m under arts/life.

Lloyd said his goal for the project was to choose a few of his favourites and some people often ask him to try and recreate the feel of the old community dances, when singers were rare and most bands played instrumental dance music.

He played “Whispering” for many years with Harry Parker’s band, and “Sam’s Place” takes him back to the first live concert he ever saw; Buck Owens and The Buckaroos at Massey Hall in the early 1960s. But however important and however linked this music is to Williamson family history, hearing it should open a deep memory vault for many of the rest of us, both listeners and players.

It did for me.

The first notes of “Wheels” whisked me back almost 30 years to the dozens and dozens of dances I had the pleasure of playing in rural Manitoba. It was the late 1970s and early ’80s with Carl Grexton and his sons Keith and Conrad, The Generations. Those brothers favoured the same vintage Fender guitar sound as the Williamsons, and an eerily similar repertoire.

I’d love to have the Grexton family and the Williamson family in the same room for a Sunday afternoon music session, make that a weekend, and a long one.

Bill Henry is city editor at The Sun Times and a local musician. Our Sound appears most Thursdays. He can be reached at bhenry@thesuntimes.ca

As with baseball cards, Barbie dolls and other collectibles, condition is very important. Instruments in “excellent” condition are always worth more than instruments in “average” condition.

Guitars must meet several other criterias to be worth money. One of the most important aspects is originality. Any modifications, replaced parts or repairs, no matter how practical, will decrease the value of a vintage guitar. Even replacing the original case or re-fretting the guitar (the equivalent to replacing a car’s tires) will decrease value.

For example, a “beat-up” original finish guitar will always be worth much more than a perfectly refinished one. Even if the new finish is done professionally and looks perfect, it will be worth approximately half the price of an original finish guitar. This is because once the original finish is gone, there is simply no way to replace it. The materials, the procedures, the patina will all be different on a refinished instruement. Also it can be refinished many times or done perfectly, but it is still “refinished” and will never be “original” again.

Also I need to explain the term “mint”, as it is constantly misrepresented. “Mint” means as new, or in the same condition as if you purchased the item new today. There is no such thing as “mint for its age”. Either an item is mint (brand new condition), or it’s not.

Another big thing that effects value is demand. The Fender electric mandolin, although very rare, is not worth very much. The reason is demand, or “who wants it?”. If the instrument has limited popularity, for whatever reason, it will appeal to a limited crowd. Hence it will not be worth as much as a popular instrument.

To a some extent, rarity has only limited connection to value. For example, the Fender Telecaster is very valuable, even though Fender made tens of thousands of them from 1950 to 1965 (Fender’s most collectable era). The reason is demand. Although the Tele is not rare compared to their electric mandolin, it is a very popular guitar. Hence it is worth considerably more than the (much rarer) electric mandolin.

To summarize, for a vintage guitar to be valuable there must be:
Demand for the model.
Originality (unmodified, no repairs).
Condition.

WHAT is it Worth?
The question I get asked constantly is, “what is it worth?”. Usually I value things based on what they are worth to me, not someone else. Most times that equates to market value, but sometimes it’s higher and sometimes it’s lower (depending on the vintage guitar). Really the best way to determine what a guitar is worth is to get some “cash offers” for the guitar. Ask around and see what people would pay.

are APPRAISALS worth anything?
In my opinion, the answer to this is “no”. The recent trend in vintage guitar appraisals has been to over appraise vintage guitars. “Why”, you ask? This is purely a business decision from the appraisal people. Since most appraisals are done by vintage guitar dealers who want to sell your vintage instrument, it is to their benefit to appraise high (over-appraise). This especially applies to the larger vintage guitar dealers in Nashville and New York who do mostly consignment sales (another scam in my opinion). Since consignments involve little to no cost on the vintage guitar dealer’s part, appraising your guitar high and taking it on consignment is advantageous to them. After all, if you are selling a guitar, are you going to consign it to a dealer that gave you the lowest appraisal? Heck no! That’s why most dealers over-appraise guitar values, to “set the hook” and get the guitar into their shop.
Because of this, I feel appraisals are little more than a scam (most dealers charge $30 or more for a formal appraisal). If you want to know the true value of your vintage guitar, ask a couple dealers, “what would you pay, cash, right now, for my guitar?” This amount will be significantly less than the appraisal, but is the true value of what price your vintage guitar will sell. Yes of course the dealer will try and sell your vintage guitar for more than they are offering (after all they are in business to make money). But they have access to an international market and client list that you and I don’t have. And they may be willing to spend the time (as much as years) selling your guitar “retail”. My opinion is, “so let them try”…

when APPRAISALS were fair
I remember back a fews years appraisals were legitimate. When I was buying a vintage guitar from someone that was nervous about its value, I would tell them to send $30 and a front and back picture to a vintage guitar shop in Nashville for an appraisal (we would usually split the cost of the appraisal). And the appraisals were fair; I would pay near or at the appraised value. But it didn’t take a rocket scientist for the vintage guitar dealers to realize what was happening; they would appraise the vintage guitar fairly and it would get sold to someone else local to the guitar! Because of this, all the vintage guitar dealers that do formal appraisals are over-appraising guitar values. This makes the “local” deal look bad, and their consignment scam look good.

Vintage Gibson guitar identification is easy if you know what to look for. Serial numbers are not always the complete answer. Better to look for a combo of serial numbers, factory order numbers and any design features specific to the time.

Factory Order Numbers (FON’s) were used by Gibson to track batches of instruments in the early days when they made guitars normally in batches of forty. Therefore early Gibson Vintage Guitars may have both a FON and a serial number. The FON will even provide what number in the batch of forty guitars your instrument was.

There are three groups of numbers which are used for their accuracy. The numbers are often stamped or written on the back of the instrument and seen through the lower f-hole or round soundhole. They may also be impressed on the back of the headstock.

Code Letter FONs were stopped after 1941 and any instruments made during or right after World War II do not bear any FON codes. In1949, a four digit FON was used, but not in conjunction with any code
letter.

From 1952-61, the FON’s scheme followed the pattern of a letter, batch number, and instrument ranking number. The FON is the only identification number on Gibson’s lower grade models like the ES-125, ES-140 etc.)
which do not feature a paper label. High grade models (such as the Super 400, L-5 etc.) have both a serial number and a FON.
When both numbers are present on a high grade model, please remember that the FON was assigned at the beginning of the production run, while the serial number was recorded later (before shipping). The serial number would be the best indication of the actual date of the guitar.

By Lyndon Ogden from VintageGibsonGuitar.com

Because I record all of my music on the Mac, I tend to focus most of my attention on software designed for that purpose. However, there are other important factors to consider from the outset-one of the most important is choosing the right guitar for the job.

What To Look For
You can get away with a lot playing live, but when it comes to recording, you’re looking for a tone as close to perfect as you can get. Like most guitar players, I fiddle around with my tone endlessly, always trying to get that perfect sound.I do use some effects-not as a way to shape the sound that I want, but as a way to enhance the sound I already have. That’s where choosing the right guitar comes into play.

Far too often, I see guitar players load effects onto their guitars in an attempt to boost the signal, but instead they end up muddying the tone. Again, in a live situation that may work, but it’s a disaster when trying to record.

Approach your buying experience knowing what you want to do with your instrument. Do you want to record? Play live? Just have fun and play many different styles of music? Your decision will have an impact on what type of guitar you end up buying. For example, If you’re a blues player, picking a high-gain, active pickup, heavy-metal-focused guitar probably won’t be the best choice for your type of music. Likewise, you won’t want a passive pickup jazz guitar if you’re a heavy-metal player. If you get the right guitar for your type of music, you’ll rely less on experimenting with effects to get the killer tone you’re looking for.
Taylor GS616ce

Currently I have 11 guitars that I use for playing and recording music. From a Taylor acoustic to a 23-year-old Fender Squire Strat, I can get the right tone for almost any genre I want to play.

Of course, you’re not going to go out and buy that many guitars all at once-my collection has accumulated over 20 years. For example, when I started recording a new album this past year, I picked up three new guitars-each selected for the specific tone it brought to the songs. Here’s a look at what each offers the recordings.

There are so many choices when looking for an acoustic guitar. I chose Taylor’s $3,948 GS616ce acoustic/electric cutaway model. Made from big-leaf maple and sitka spruce, it’s an unbelievably great-sounding guitar that inspires you to write songs just by playing it.

I like cutaway models for playing those lower frets during an acoustic solo. I also decided to go with the combined acoustic/electric because I would be playing live as well as recording with it.

I’ve tried recording with the 616 plugged directly into my Mac audio interface and with a microphone-both produced great results. I’ve written two acoustic songs for the album so far, and I’m very pleased with the results.

Taylor SolidBody Standard
On the electric front, I picked up two guitars. One of them is Taylor’s $2,398 SolidBody Standard. I first saw the Taylor SolidBody at the NAMM tradeshow in January 2008 and was intrigued-Taylor is known as an acoustic guitar company.

After playing one in a room off the show floor, I was very impressed with how it felt in my hands and the ease of the fretboard. It’s also impressive that Taylor designed its own pickups and bridge, as well as including technology developed from years of guitar making in the neck and body.

The Taylor SolidBody is one of the most versatile guitars in my collection, producing a very warm blues tone through my Vox AC30 amp and a chunky tone for rock songs through my Randall amp. It’s a versatile guitar that gives you the best of both worlds for tone.

Washburn Signature WI66ANC Nick Catanese
Sometimes chunky just isn’t enough. I’m a huge fan of Ozzy Osbourne and Black Label Society, so I often find myself writing and playing songs that require a lot of gain. As I said earlier, I would rather achieve the tone I’m looking for by choosing the right guitar instead of adding overdrive or other effects.

The $1,749 Washburn Signature WI66ANC Nick Catanese (named after Black Label Society’s rhythm guitarist) has a solid mahogany body and neck with an ebony fingerboard. It also comes with my favorite pickups, the EMG 81 (neck) and EMG 85 (bridge). The tone from this guitar is simply killer.

I’ve found there’s no amount of effects that I can add to my other guitars to create the raw tone that I get from this one. As a matter of fact, I’m not using any external effects at all when I record with it.

If you’re looking to get a high-gain sound for pinch harmonics or that classic heavy metal tone, you must check out this guitar-it’s now my go-to guitar for recording this type of music as well as playing it live.

[Editor at Large Jim Dalrymple is recording his first album on a Mac. Visit our Creative Notes blog to follow his progress.]